No, there's no inflation problem — and this explains why

Republican officials and conservative commentators are sounding the alarm about the high cost of gas after a pipeline was hacked and what they say is out-of-control inflation.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) have both been sounding the alarm that the U.S. is facing an economic crisis.

Washington Post economics correspondent Heather Long posted a screen capture of the charts showing that the economy seems to be re-stabilizing after crashing last April.

The two most volatile things on the list are gasoline and food prices. Food prices are tied to gasoline because most of America's food source comes from somewhere outside of their own state, which requires transportation.

The sudden run on gasoline is about the hacking of the Colonial Pipeline, a private company targeted by a foreign hacker group.

"But a year ago, prices plunged, making comparisons difficult — prices are near where they'd be if they had grown at a steady 2 percent during the pandemic," the Post explained.

Gas prices are increasing after they dropped significantly in April 2020. They dropped in April 2020 because no one was driving anywhere amid the pandemic.

The increases aren't because of the president, as gas has only had a 10 percent increase under Biden's presidency, the Tampa Bay Times wrote.

"Gas prices were similar to or higher than their current level for much of the time between October 2017 and January 2020 — that is, more than two years of Trump's presidency," said the report. "Prices were higher than today for all of the time between March 2018 and November 2018, and all of the time between April 2019 and August 2019."

At the same time, the cost of gas always goes up in the summer because it's when people travel the most. It's just like gas prices going up just before holidays where people will be traveling.

To make matters worse, the report explained that "the OPEC oil cartel and Russia have made voluntary production cuts, which has the effect of raising prices," said Mark Finley, a fellow at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, according to the report.

For the past decade, Democrats have attempted to increase the minimum wage to account for the inflation since it was last increased 30 years ago. Republicans have refused despite their complaints about inflation.

Read the full piece at the Tampa Bay Times and see the chart from the Post above.